April 2011 eNewsletter
Club 180
 Guilford Interfaith is a lifeboat to shipwrecked homeless families. Everyday we hear their cries and do our best to pluck them from the stormy seas. Serving over 50 families with 90 children each year takes financial resources beyond the food and shelter provided by faithful Network volunteers. Please help by having your church take up a special offering during May, perhaps May 1, to help keep the lifeboat afloat.
To a younger generation raised on video games and touch-screen cell phones, those words have little meaning. Those of us who remember or who remember hearing about oceangoing troop transports and ocean liners, “Mayday! Mayday! SOS!” conveys icy images worthy of James Cameron’s epic movie Titanic. This sailor’s cry, “Mayday! Mayday! SOS!” means, “Help us! W e’re going down! Save our souls!!”
Guilford Interfaith hears cries just as desperate almost every day from some child’s mom or dad whose “home ship” is sinking or has sunk. I asked staff to send me actual notes from their initial conversations with these distraught parents. Here’s a sampling of staff notes typed during phone interviews. There have been slight changes to enhance readability and to protect confidences.
- Mom and 2 children: Living with her cousin for 6 months; not working out. Mom has no housing and no employment. She had her own place before, and she ran out of unemployment, became behind on bills and could no longer maintain self-sufficiency. Now, every week, cousin tells her that family can no longer stay there.
- Mom and 1 child: Currently residing with her grandmother who has asked them to move in two weeks due to overcrowding. Prior to this, she was living with her daughter for 1½ months, but could not remain due to overcrowding, per landlord. Prior to this, she was living with a friend for three months – he’s on Section 8 and could not stay there for long because they monitor.
- Mom & 2 children: Been with her sister for 1½ years, but when sister gets mad at her boyfriend, she takes it out on everyone. Sister threw them out. Since living with sister she’s been supporting herself financially. Currently, she’s staying with her mother’s friend, but she has to leave by Friday.
- Mom, dad, & 5 children: Rooming house for 1 week, but it’s a drug den, before that he was maintenance tech for an apartment complex for four months and got an apartment as part of salary. Got laid off and then evicted a month later. No money for another place. Had their own place for 7 years before that.
- Father & son: He’s staying with a friend in HP in a boarding house – a room. Friend is a truck driver who is gone most of the month, so when he comes in, dad sleeps in his truck to let son keep his bed. Friend is getting laid off and will lose the place.
These 5 examples represent 11 children and 6 adults. Only one of these families made it into the Guilford Interfaith lifeboat. During the year we expect to serve another 49 families with 80 or 90 children. We need your help to make this happen.
On behalf of the Guilford Interfaith board, I am asking you to help us answer the call, “Mayday! Support Our Shelter!” Will you ask your church or civic group to take up a special offering to fund the Guilford Interfaith lifeboat? We are asking for these collections in May, when we need it most. The GIHN lifeboat floats on $220,000 a year, and the tide is critically low. We very much need help now. If you need more information or details about our situation, please contact Executive Director Clarke Martin, 336-339-4593 or Clarke@GIHN.org.
Sincerely,
Kris Kattmann
GIHN President
Starmount Presbyterian
 >>>>>>>>
This is what home looks like to 3 recent graduate families. Out of the lifeboat, onto dry land, thanks to you and all Network supporters!
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- Did you know the average age of a homeless person in the United States is 9?
- Did you know that, according to the News & Record, Guilford County Schools reports 1,600 homeless students in our schools?
- Have you ever wondered how you could make a difference?
- Would you believe that 50¢ a day would be enough to help turn a child’s life around 180°?
  
We all know the children don’t have a choice about their current situation. Each of us, on the other hand, can make the choice to help turn a child’s life around. Join Club 180, a group of Guilford Interfaith supporters who commit at least $180 per year to supporting our mission to shelter homeless children and their families. For the price of two big gum balls, a jawbreaker, or a bouncy ball you have the opportunity to turn a child’s life around!
Join Club 180 for as little as 50¢ a day . . . $15 a month . . . $180 a year and help 50 families with 90 children turn their lives around. With your help Guilford Interfaith leverages resources within the Network congregations and community to provide shelter, food, clothing, love, hope, and professional case management each year to 50 families - 60 adults with 90 children.
To join, please click Club 180 using your credit or debit card or your PayPal account.
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“I came in late fall. I could not believe the outpouring around Christmas time. This meant a lot to me and helped ease the transition for my daughter. The volunteers have been a great help - very understanding and compassionate. It’s a very wonderful network of people.”
“This experience has truly been a blessing to me and my daughter. I would like to thank the GIHN network. I have worked in hospitality all my life, and we were truly treated as “guests” at all the churches we visited.”
 Young West Market Street UMC members (left to right) Amelia & Marie Shields and Claire Oxner set up a hot cocoa stand along side of the steady stream of cars doing the Christmas light crawl through their Sunset Hills neighborhood last December to raise over $300 for Guilford Interfaith. After prayerful consideration these ladies decided they would like to start a fund to buy bus tickets to help families get to work, the store, and appointments. They hope their seed will grow. Contact Clarke to add to the fund.
With so much going on within the Network, there are many opportunities to help support Guilford Interfaith’s mission to homeless children and their families. Here is a sampling of the servant leadership opportunities available.
- Guilford Interfaith Board of Trustees: Currently, there are several vacancies on the board. We need folks from High Point and Greensboro, and Rev. Ruth Lenger would love another member of the clergy to join the fun. The board meets once a month from 5:30-7:00pm to address GIHN’s strategic needs. Trustees also work in pairs and small groups with other volunteers on events, team training, church recruitment, and resource development. In addition to the board meeting, trustees invest 1-3 hours a month in Guilford Interfaith. For this reason, trustees are usually not Primary Coordinators.
- Board Coordinator Liaisons: There are two trustee positions for current Primary Coordinators. They each serve a one-year trustee term to facilitate communications among trustees and coordinators. Coordinator Liaisons are fully vested trustees who work with other Primary Coordinators and volunteers to improve Guilford Interfaith’s programs.
- Committee Volunteers: If you have one to two hours a month and a desire to give back to the community, Guilford Interfaith has opportunities for you. Let us know where your interest lie and we will find the right volunteer opportunity for you. For instance, if you’ve been a part of your Guilford Interfaith team for a few years, you are well-qualified to help a neighboring church recruit and equip folks to their team. Time commitments vary. One month you might just make a few calls to sister churches asking about team needs. Other months a pair of you might prepare for and conduct training at a Network church. You might also visit a neighboring Sunday school class to talk about Guilford Interfaith.
If you would like to get more involved in your Guilford Interfaith, or if you have questions about service, please contact Guilford Interfaith President Kris Kattmann, 274-7980, or Secretary Cathy Ingram, 706-8979.
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If you've got 10 friends who believe in Guilford Interfaith's mission to shelter and care for 90 children and their families each year, you can play for free!
Each spring for the 5th year now, Guilford Interfaith's golfing community celebrates a very successful fundraiser with a golf event. The year's Captain's Choice, Best Ball Scrambler is back at Grandover Resort. The day includes continental breakfast, box lunch & beverage, a sleeve of balls, cart, GPS, prizes, and all the fun you can stand! What's better than free golf . . . on a Friday even??
Here's how this year's fundraiser works. Foursomes, twosomes, and single golfers are sought from all 55 Network churches and from within the Triad community. Each golfer asks 10 friends to ask 5 others to donate $20 toward supporting Guilford Interfaith's mission. If you've got 10 friends who know how much you love golf and who know how important Guilford Interfaith's ministry is to 50 families a year, then you're in business!
Contact your church's GIHN coordinator to sign up. Don't know who coordinates GIHN at your church, then contact GIHN Golf Coordinator Cathy Ingram, 706-8979, or GIHN Executive Director Clarke Martin, 339-4593, Clarke@GIHN.org. We can get you signed up and get all the materials to you ASAP. Wouldn't want you to miss out on free golf with your Guilford Interfaith friends.
Click on this golfer image to sponsor a golfer or to make a donation to GIHN using your credit or debit card through our secure server. You may also use your PayPal account. Be sure to look for "PLEASE CLICK to list your golfer & church" on the order confirmation screen. That way, we can give due credit to your favorite golfer.
 Event Sponsor $2,500
∙ Only 1 available
∙ Logo on the ball
∙ Logo on all outgoing emails & GIHN home page
∙ Largest logo on all promo arrays
∙ Logo on 2 tee markers
∙ ½-page ad in the GIHN newsletter
Gold Sponsors $1,000
∙ Only 4 available
∙ Logo on golf web page
∙ Logo on all promos
∙ Logo in the sponsor array
∙ Logo on a tee marker
∙ ¼-page ad in the GIHN newsletter
Silver Sponsors $500
∙ Only 4 available
∙ Text on golf web page
∙ Logo on all promos
∙ Logo in the sponsor array
∙ Logo on tee marker
∙ Business-card ad in the newsletter
Hole Sponsors $200
∙ Logo on tee marker
∙ Text listing in the GIHN newsletter
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For the last decade or so Greensboro’s First Presbyterian Churchs has graciously provided Paisley House to Guilford Interfaith for its day center on Greene Street. It’s impossible to put into words what this gift has meant over the years to the nearly 1,000 guests of the Greensboro Rotation as well as to the board and staff. We thank the leadership and congregation of First Presbyterian for their unfailing love and support, and we bless them in the exciting new ministries they seek to develop.
This expansion of their programs does mean that Guilford Interfaith is looking for a new facility for its Greensboro day center. You can help the GIHN board locate that new home. What we need is described below.
- Location: Because children are such a part of Guilford Interfaith’s mission, the new day center needs to be nestled in or up to a residential neighborhood.
- Size: It depends on the configuration of the rooms, but the range is generally 1500 - 2000 sq. ft.
- Location: Being within a ½-mile (10-minute) walk from a bus line is important.
- Features: two full baths, washer/dryer hook-ups, full kitchen, space for tending to kids, doing home work, and space for two offices.
- Cost: Free is best. If that doesn’t work out, the funds will be raised to meet the need. Operating and maintenance expenses are definitely a major consideration.
- Location: The GSO Rotation is used to Fisher Park, but other parts of town would work well for our guests.
If you have a question about our needs or if you have a lead on Guilford Interfaith’s new Greensboro day center, please contact Executive Director Clarke Martin at Clarke@GIHN.org or 339-4593.
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